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Monday, April 22, 2013

Common Affection

Some projects turn out exactly as you had imagined them, and others . . . Well others just take on a life of their own. This project was one of the second variety.March was my month to choose a project for the Mid-Century Modern Bee and I chose the Hugs & Kisses block by Little Miss Shabby. And then I dug into the stack of charms I had gotten in the Low Volume Swap last summer. Without even realizing it, I even used the fabric I had swapped in my sample block - the blue/gray/white circles (Quilt Blocks by Ellen Luckett Baker for Moda Fabrics) in the bottom right-hand corner.

The blocks came in right on schedule, and one day I put them all on my design wall and began mulling over what to do with them.I posted a picture in the flickr group, and my bee-mate Carla/Grace and Favour made the quilt-changing suggestion to put them on-point. Oh yeah.

At that point, I was talking filling in around the blocks with solid grays when bee-mate #2, Linda/Flourishing Palmssuggested matching up with the skinny bits to make all those block conjunctions squares. Good idea! But when I started adding those pieces up on the wall, it dawned on me that I really needed to link up the skinny bits out on the edges too. So that's what I did, using three different grays in the process - Kona Ash and Iron plus Michael Miller Couture Stone.

Things were getting a little more complicated . . .

If I'd known all along what the outcome would be, I would have pieced things just a bit differently, but I made it work, and was pretty pleased with the result.

If I had it to do over, I would have used more low-volume prints for those squares inside of the 'border' line, but then again, I didn't really 'see' that till I was done. Anyway, I forged ahead, quilting with Aurifil Light Beige (#2310). I did a straight-line coil, starting off centered in the upper-left of the quilt and echoing at 1" increments. Binding was scrappy solid grays with a couple of snippets of gray prints.

To be honest, this quilt is as much a collaboration as any I've done. The block was designed by Little Miss Shabby, my Mid-Century Modern Bee joined me in making blocks, Carla suggested the layout, Linda gave me the idea of continuing the accent strips, and I ran my quilting and binding thoughts by daughter dear before moving forward. So yeah, it's small (45" square) but for me, there's alot wrapped up in this quilt.

As I finished it, I started mulling over a name for it, and I came up with "Common Affection" - common for the cooperative effort of my bee in working jointly towards a goal, and affection as a nod to the Hugs & Kisses block.

Weather wasn't really conducive to a decent photo shoot, but hubby was willing to run out during a break in the rain and let me take a few shots. I loved the one against the blue building (a random smoke shop!); he liked the one below against the brick. So I figured I'd share them both . . .

I've gotta say, when I saw the first pic, I was far from impressed. Of course, I'm a color person, so it just wasn't floating my boat. But now I must say, I was really impressed at its transformation. First, the "on point" was a great idea, next the darker gray really punched it up and then the small stripe added icing to the cake. Congrats on a job very well done!

so pretty, in fact, i had to visit it again this morning (: i saw the hugs & kisses block/quilt pattern and it did not jump onto my "want" list at all...but i have to say the way you did it made it jump right to the top...5! i actually have a pile of low volume fabrics waiting for a eureka moment - perhaps they will get to be hugs and kisses...but not on point and not with all of the other fabulous extras and upgrades you provided yours...maybe i will just make the simple one - i'm sure it would still be good enough for me and my humble aspirations (: but yours is truly gorgeous - VERY inspiring!!!

You're so kind to credit me with helping you on this quilt - the name for it is perfect! I think it turned out beautifully, and is certainly something you couldn't' have PLANNED this way. I do hope you'll enter it in the AQS Modern Quilt Challenge. It's definitely worthy!

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